SERIES: THE POETRY OF JOHN ODEY ADUMA, FROM THE TREE BY THE RIVER

The whole humanity now knows

You are wiser than your rider

Who without provocation head-butted you

In the glare of the Klieg lights.

And the whole wide world -

Even the world now knows

That you are more cultivated, cultured and civilized

Than your rider who without caring a hoot

Threw civility and decorum to the winds.

Without doubt, he showed he, and not you, was

A helpless creature, a mere child

In the hands of ungovernable temper.

The world admires you for bearing

That unwarranted aggression with equanimity.

You showed strength, while your rider

Showed crass weakness;

You showed self-restraint, maturity and universal altruism.

And by that example you showed the world

That non-violence is the true path to global peace,

If all humanity and all creatures would ever live

Together in peace and harmony with one another.

Even Gandhi would have been proud of you were he alive.

Had Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas

Shown such unparalleled restraint,

The Middle East would not be

The field of blood that it is today.

Had the US and Britain not lapsed into

Conspiratorial etcetera in the resolution

Of the war between Israel and Hezbollah,

That senseless war would have ceased long ago.

Worthy ambassador of your family,

By not fighting back, you have said

To all belligerent human beings of

Every race and clime, “You fools!”

For always resorting to war instead of dialogue

And proved that silence is not just golden, but strength

And that old debate about who is higher,

Between man and other creatures such as you

Has finally been put to rest by your stoicism.

O’ wicked and intemperate rider, what wisdom is there to attack

A creature that said nothing and did no wrong?

What could be the reason for such purposeless malignity?

What is the reason for the existence

Of violence in human community?

What, what is the reason for wars in our world?

Where is justice when an innocent creature

Like the horse is attacked with such ferociousness?

Now, let all humanity learn from the non-violence of the horse

So, there can be harmony and peace in our world;

So, we can live here in peace as one;

So, we can live on this planet earth

As one big family imbibing the spirit of universal altruism,

Differences in creeds notwithstanding.

• JOHN ODEY ADUMA

             August 4, 2006.